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Tommy John, Elbow-Surgery Pioneer and 288-Game Winner, Dies at 83
The four-time All-Star whose name became shorthand for a career-saving surgery died in hospice care in Florida, capping a 26-year career that outlasted the injury that should have ended it.
Tommy John, the left-handed pitcher whose name is now attached to the most famous surgery in sports, died Saturday at his home in Bradenton, Florida, at 83. He had been in hospice care amid a recurrence of bladder cancer, his family confirmed.
John won 288 games over a 26-year major league career that ran from 1963 to 1989, split across the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels and Oakland Athletics. He finished with a 3.34 ERA, 2,245 strikeouts and four All-Star selections — a resume that would stand on its own, but it's what happened to his elbow in 1974 that made him a permanent fixture in baseball history.
The Surgery That Changed Baseball
At age 31, John tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left pitching elbow, an injury that at the time typically ended careers outright. Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe offered him an experimental option: replace the torn ligament with a tendon taken from his own right forearm. Jobe gave the untested procedure, performed on September 25, 1974, roughly 100-to-1 odds of allowing John to pitch again.
"I AM SICK MY NAME IS ATTACHED TO A SURGERY HAPPENING IN KIDS MORE THAN PROS"
John didn't just pitch again — he won 164 more games after the surgery, more than he'd won in his first decade in the majors, pitching until he was 46. "Tommy John surgery" has since been performed on more than 2,600 major league players and countless more amateurs, though John himself grew uneasy watching the procedure spread to youth pitchers. "I am sick my name is attached to a surgery happening in kids more than pros," he said in 2018, referring to the rise of elbow injuries among teenage pitchers throwing too hard, too young.
John shared a farewell message with fans shortly before entering hospice care, writing that he would "never forget" the game and the people in it. Tributes poured in from across baseball following his death, honoring both his on-field career and a medical legacy that quite literally changed how the sport is played.